In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king’s long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner’s motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword’s point—he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage’s rivals have their own agendas as well.

As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner’s sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.

So, um, yeah. This book. It was pretty freaking amazing.

I mean, guys? SAGE. His voice was strong from the get-go, completely captivating, and probably the main reason why I enjoyed The False Prince as much as I did. Sage is kick-ass, sneaky, mischievous, and clever, and sometimes (okay, often) his attitude gets him into trouble and he’s knocked down, but he always gets back on his feet and keeps going. At times, he lies like a pro, and at others, he’s brutally honest. He’s always looking ten steps ahead. He’s roguish, his voice is witty and convincing… I like him a lot.

I also really quite liked Conner. I mean, don’t get me wrong – that guy’s a complete asshole most of the time. But he was a really interesting character because he did shitty things for what he felt was all the right reasons. He’s ruthless, delusional, had no empathy for those who stood in his way, and what he was doing was pretty screwed up, but he did it because he felt that it was the only way. It wasn’t like I could sympathize with him (Ladamer made it pretty hard to do so), but what he was doing made sense in a twisted way, you know? He wasn’t your typical evil, reason-less villain.

From Tobias and Roden to Imogen, the other characters were really well-written and well-rounded, too, though no one could hold a candle to Sage. Sage is… well, Sage. They all have their strengths and their weaknesses, and with a cast of characters like them and a main character like Sage, there was never a dull moment in The False Prince.

Most of the story takes place in Conner’s castle. It was really straightforward – no info dumps and pages of flowery descriptions. It was really fun following Sage through the lessons Conner – attempted to – set for them. With horses, sword fights, and midnight escapades this was pretty much my kind of book.

I was just a liiiiittle disappointed by that twist towards the end, though. I mean, you could probably see it coming. You could probably see it coming just by reading the synopsis, before you even open the book. I mean, I’m not the slowest person, but I’m not one to catch most every plot twist before it happens, and I could see it coming from a mile away. But as the book progresses and you start to think that maybe it won’t happen, maybe it isn’t going to end up as predictable as you think it is, and then… Hello, Reality. The main character’s the main character, after all. And yeah, I’m going to admit, I was a little disappointed. It didn’t really seem that believable any more, especially after all the character development and buildup from all the previous chapters. But it happened. And that’s that, I guess. It wasn’t big enough to ruin the whole book, though I did bump down my rating because of it and the somewhat lackluster ending. It was as if the author suddenly ran out of steam at the end and just slapped down enough words to end the story with.

The ending ties everything up quite nicely; The False Prince could be a stand-alone novel if it wanted to. No awful cliffhanger ending for once! Hooray! Which gives you ever the more reason to read this book. Because you’re totally going to, right? Awesome characters, sword fights, midnight escapades… I think you should.